Wool scouring rapid

The scouring of wool differs from cotton in two essential respects. In the first place, raw wool contains anything from 30 to 60 per cent of wool grease, compared with 0-5 per cent of oil and wax in cotton. In the second place, wool is very rapidly degraded by alkali so that if the natural oils and fats are to be saponified the alkali must be applied with caution and at temperatures well below the boil. In practice, sodium hydroxide is never used because the slightest excess would raise the pH above the danger level, and milder alkalis such as sodium carbonate and ammonia or ammonium carbonate are preferred. 

For over a decade NIR quality control has been used in the textile and fiber industries. Perhaps the widest use of NIR has been in the cotton industry. Cotton blending, mercerization, and fiber maturity measurement have been used offline for rapid process control. The wool industry has also employed NIR to measure the residual grease after scouring. Calibrations have been developed for measuring moisture and heat set temperature in nylon yam. Online NIR analysis is being developed for the quality control of the dyeing procedure for carpet yam and for measuring yarn diameter. 

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